St. Albert eco city is green from ground up

2010-01-20 from:Edmonton Journal author:Dave Cooper

135-hectare project to serve as giant experiment in clean technology

What's being described as North America's largest eco city is planned on newly annexed land in St. Albert, a $1.8-billion project for 6,000 residents designed to be a living laboratory for green technology.

Rampart Avenir Communities, a Dutch investment firm, has partnered with Edmontonbased Melcor Developments, U.S.-based EnerTech Capital and the National Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Alberta to put together the 135-hectare project.

"This is not another green community, it is an investment forum for clean technology," project director David Bromley said Saturday from his Vancouver home.

"You build a marketplace that uses the clean technology and then you can compare the new with the traditional technology, and let the market make the assessment," he said.

"There is no platform like that in North America that allows a holistic view of this new technology, just sporadic applications isolated from aspects of daily living so you don't get the full view of how it performs."

Bromley gave the example of a traditional sewer line versus a new one which removes heat from the waste.

"The two can run parallel for a short distance and we can compare. There have been problems with the heat exchangers in these new sewer lines, and so copper inlays have been added," Bromley said.

However, that created a residue that killed microbes in the waste, which had an impact on sewage treatment plants, a downside that had to be solved.

The U of A's nanotechnology centre and the Edmonton region's growth potential are two reasons why the project is going to St. Albert, Bromley said. "Nanotechnology is really key to the clean technology sector."

Local companies and service providers will be crucial to trying and then improving new technology.

For instance, builders could be asked to build a zero-energy house. Rampart Avenir and its partners would help fund the work and provide the technology, and if the designs work, a second unit suitable for residents could be built and evaluated by researchers and residents. After more improvements, the design could go to a commercial scale.

The goal is to have local firms develop expertise that can be marketed worldwide with the support of the partnership.

"If the technology is no good, it won't go commercial, and nothing changes. But if it does, we have a laboratory platform. That's the premise," Bromley said.

Rampart is still working toward gaining approvals for the project from St. Albert. Rampart and Melcor own the majority of the land for the Avenir project, which includes an industrial land component owned by a third group.

The site is sandwiched between Ray Gibbon Drive and Carrot Creek west of the North Ridge community.

The project is focused on clean technology in the areas of local energy production and conservation; water recovery and reuse; and community food production.

"I have always believed that finding ways to maintain quality of life while investing in new technologies is the only way to encourage 'greener' living among all people, and not just a niche group of individuals," Gerry de Klerk, CEO of Rampart Capital, said in a news release.

"I expect that the project will act as a blueprint concept that will be replicated across the world."